According to the Sunday Mirror,via ProQuest Information and PsychPort.com, SOARING numbers of young girls in Great Britain are being treated in hospital for eating disorders.

The report claims that cases of bulimia and anorexia among girls under 18 have leaped by 47 percent in the U.K. from 562 in 2004 to 825 last year.

Especially alarming is the data that shows there has also been a 25 per cent rise in girls UNDER AGE NINE being treated for eating disorders.

The new figures also show the number of women needing hospital treatment in the U.K. has risen by 25 per cent to 1,740 compared with 1,398 in 2004. The number of men being treated for eating disorders has also gone up, rising to 226 last year from 183 in 2004.

According to the article, U.K. health experts blame the increasing pressure on young people to stay thin for the rising number of anorexia and bulimia cases. In a recent poll of 3,000 teenagers 75 per cent said they felt they needed to lose weight after looking at pictures of skinny stars.

Susan Ringwood, chief executive of eating disorder charity Beat, said: “We are very concerned by these figures. We have heard of cases of people being told by doctors ‘wait and see and come back later’. And these people get very, very ill before they get any help.

“Eating disorders are a serious psychiatric condition. It’s worrying that young people who are suffering are not getting the appropriate treatment until they are dangerously ill.”